The present invention relates to a disc holding device and disc recording and/or reproducing device for receiving and recording/reproducing a plurality of discs.
There is a disc player by way of disc recording and/or reproducing device mounted on motor vehicles for recording and/or reproducing sound. The disc player is constructed to store a plurality of CDs (compact discs) in a magazine and change the whole CDs at a time together with the magazine. This leads to a device enlargement, so that the main body is received in a trunk, while only the part necessary for operation is arranged in a cabin. However, changing CDs is not possible during driving of the vehicle, and requires stop thereof to open the trunk, forming a bothersome affair.
On this account, vehicle-mounted disc players to be received in cabins are developed in recent years. Such vehicle-mounted disc player, which is required to enable storage of a plurality of CDs, is received in a predetermined in-dash space in the cabin. Accordingly, there remains an essential challenge of a reduction in size of the vehicle-mounted disc players.
The vehicle-mounted disc player includes a roughly rectangular-prism casing of a given dimension called 1 DIN size or the like, in which, for example, six mounting stages 2 for individually mounting six CDs thereon are placed one upon another to constitute a disc compartment. Six CDs can individually be loaded and ejected to successively select one of six CDs for reproduction.
The disc compartment is constructed to vertically movably place one upon another six plate-like mounting stages 2 for supporting roughly the entire surface of the respective discs. Upon reproduction, a selected tray on which a selected CD is mounted and tray(s) thereabove are all raised to insert into a space formed below the selected tray a turntable for holding and rotating the disc and an optical pickup unit for reproduction.
However, the tray for mounting a disc thereon is like a plate, leading to not only larger area to be surface treated for preventing a disc from being damaged, but greater weight of the disc compartment when having a plurality of mounting stages 2 placed. Moreover, the plate-like shape requires greater quantity of material, leading to an increase in manufacturing cost.
Therefore, the present invention aims to provide a disc holder and a disc recording and/or reproducing device that solve such problems.
A disc holding device in connection with claim 1 is constructed to include first and second disc holding means including first and second disc mounting means for mounting one and another sides of an outer peripheral portions of a disc and first and second bias means for biasing the one and another sides of the outer peripheral portions toward the first and second disc mounting means, wherein the first and second disc holding means are separately disposed to face each other so as to hold thereby said disc. This allows a reduction in size of the parts, resulting in possible reduction in weight and cost of the disc holding device and also the disc recording and/or reproducing device. Moreover, this allows a reduction in area to be surface treated for preventing a disc from being damaged.
The disc holding device in connection with claim 2 is constructed such that the first bias means and the second bias means comprise engaging portions to be engaged with a bias releasing means so as to release the disc upon recording and reproduction
The disc holding device in connection with claim 3 is constructed such that the one and another sides of the outer peripheral portions of the disc are substantially opposite to each other across a center portion of the disc.
A disc recording and/or reproducing device in connection with claim 4 is constructed such that a plurality of first disc holding means and a plurality of second disc holding means are separately disposed to face each other so as to hold thereby a plurality of discs.
The disc recording and/or reproducing device in connection with claim 5 is constructed such that the first bias means and the second bias means comprise engaging portion, respectively, and bias releasing means are provided to be engaged with the engaging portions for releasing the disc holding state produced by the first disc holding means and the second disc holding means.
The disc recording and/or reproducing device in connection with claim 6 is constructed to further comprise guide means for guiding a disc when the disc is loaded onto one of the plurality of first and second disc holding means.
The disc recording and/or reproducing device in connection with claim 7 is constructed such that the guide means comprise a recess for guiding the disc.
The disc recording and/or reproducing device in connection with claim 8 is constructed such that the guide means are fixedly mounted to a top plate of a casing.
The disc recording and/or reproducing device in connection with claim 9 is constructed such that the plurality of first and second disc holding means are movable with respect to said guide means so as to allow loading of the disc.